Brasil

How is the land laid out?

The shape of Brasil¹ is quite irregular. Its coast follows a great right angle--the famous bulge of South American that inspired notice of a vestigial fit to Africa's Gulf of Guinea. the north interior border includes an indent for Suriname,² southern Guyana and Guiane française,³ and a missing northwest corner. That corner is the southern half of Venezuela's Amazonas⁴ Territory and Colombia's Guainía Department. The beginning of the western border drops down straight south until reaching the Amazonas River.⁵ From there it follows a tributary upstream, bulging Brazil far west of the line dictated by a pope centuries ago. The national boundary zig-zags southeast until getting to the headwaters of the Madeira River. It follows one set of these east, then the Madeira itself south, then another set of tributaries southeast again to their source. After a short gap the border picks up the headwaters of the Paraguai.⁶ It follows these southeast to near the main stream and then parallels, and occasionally exactly follows, the Paraguai south until the Apa, a left bank tributary. Following this east, then cutting along and through mountains, gets Brazil's edge to the Paraná. This river is followed southward to its tributary, the Iguaçu. After a short distance eastward and upstream on this--past the famed falls, the border cuts over to the Uruguai,⁷ which it follows southwestward until getting to the country with the river's name. The circuit completes by cutting southeast to the Atlantic.

There are two vast geophysical zones in Brazil, and three other permimeter zones. Most of the north consists of the Amazonas lowlands, centered on the river system. Most of the south consists of the Central Highlands.⁸ These tilt down as they go west toward the interior, and also as they go north. In the west they are merely low hills, but in the east steep escarpments make travel from the coast difficult.

North of the Amazonas Basin the land rises to the Guiana Highlands whose crests mark parts of the borders with Venezuela and the Guianas.

Near the Paraguay River--beyond the Central Highlands--are more lowlands: the Patanal. These marshes are an extension of Boliva and western Paraguay's Gran⁹ Chaco plain.

Along the Atlantic is the Coastal Plain. This is very wide in the north and in the very south, but quite narrow south from Cape¹⁰ São¹¹ Roque--the apex of South America's bulge east. In fact, between Rio de¹² Janeiro and Santos,¹³ the plain vanishes as there the highlands reach the sea. In the south, on the other hand, the plain continues to become the grasslands--pampas--of Uruguay.

Other than short coastal rivers, Brazil is dominated by three great rivers and three others of note. The three great ones are: the Amazonas,¹⁴ flowing from Perú eastward to the Atlantic across the country; the São Francisco,¹⁵ which flows north behind the heights of the eastern edge of the Central Highlands before cutting through them to the coast in Alagoas State; and the Paraná,¹⁶ which starts from near the capital and flows southwest through the Central Highlands to exit into Argentina. The Uruguai, part of the same system,¹⁷ flows in and along the South¹⁸ Region. The remaining two are the Pará-Tocantins,¹⁹ which shares an estuary with the Amazon, and the Paranaíba, which is within and along Piauí State.

The damming of Brazil's rivers forms numerous reservoirs, four of them among South America's largest lakes.

Who lives there?

More than 19 in 20 speak Portuguese and are Christians. Almost nine in ten are Roman Catholic Christians; Pentacostal Protestant Christians are over one in 20. Among the Roman Catholics about one-third practice a syncretic blend of traditional Christianity with West African Vodun, while considering themselves purely Catholic. There has been much conversion to Pentacostal Christianity in recent decades so the Roman Catholic proportion may be overstated and the Pentacostal understated.

Two of Brazil's cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, have metropolitan areas exceeding ten million, while about a score others have over a million. Of these cities, one is in the Amazon Basin; six are in the Central highlands; 11 are on the Coastal Plain; and one is at the interior edge of the Coastal Plain. See the tables for cities in the Southeast Region and for the rest of Brasil.

Within the Nation

North (Norte) Region (part)
Pará State, Amapá Territory

North Region (part):
Amazon and Roraima States and Acre Territory

North Region (part) and Center-West (Centro-Oeste) Region:
Center-West Region and Rondônia

Northeast Region (part):
Maranhao and Tocantins
Piauí
Pernambuco, Paraíba, Alagoas and Sergipe
Bahia

Northeast Region (part), Fernando de Noronha and St. Peter and Paul Rocks:
Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Fernando de Noronha, and St. Peter and Paul Rocks

Southeast (Sudeste) Region

South Region

Footnotes

1. Officially Brasil since the late 19th century, it is still called Brazil in English.
2. Surinam in English.
3. French Guiana in English.
4. Amazon in English.
5. The Brazilians call the river Solimões above the confluence of the Negro, but the Peruvians and many others consider it the Amazonas (Amazon) from the joining of the Ucayali and the Marañón.
6. Paraguay in Spanish and English.
7. Uruguay in Spanish and English.
8. Also called the Brazilian Plateau.
9. Translates as 'big' from Spanish.
10. Cabo in Portuguese.
11. Translates as saint or holy from Portuguese.
12. Translates as 'river of' from Portuguese.
13. Translates as saints from Portuguese.
14. The world's second longest river, South America's longest.
15. Translates as Saint Francis from Portuguese. It is South America's fifth longest river.
16. South America's second longest river.
17. Both drain into the Rio de la Plata (Silver River) estuary between Uruguay and Argentina.
18. Sul in Portuguese.
19. The Pará-Tocantins together constitute South America's sixth or seventh longest river.